A problem with capitalism helped ruin Team Canada in Game 1 of the famous 1972 series

Phil Esposito put up the chances, but Team Canada was badly hurt by the banning of Bobby Hull and J.C. Tremblay.

The Canadian-Soviet Union series has gone down in history as a battle between two systems, capitalism vs. socialism, individualism vs. collectivism, with the good guys (us, the capitalist individualists) coming out on top.

One of the most glaring things, though, that comes out when you study Game 1 of the series is how the ways of capitalism almost did in Team Canada. Three key Canadian players were missing from that game, one of them, Bobby Orr, due to injury, but two others, Bobby Hull and J.C. Tremblay, because they had signed with a rival league to the National Hockey League, the newly-formed World Hockey Association.

The Summit Series between the Soviets and Team Canada was an NHL show, so Hull and Tremblay were barred from playing. It almost cost Canada the series, which was only secured in the final few seconds of Game Eight.

The first game, when Team Canada was humbled by the Soviet Union 7 to 3, was a winnable game for Canada. With Hull and the brilliant-passing Tremblay in the line-up, the outcome might well have been different. While the score spoke of a Soviet runaway, in fact the game was very close. Canada pulled within one goal eight minutes into the third period. In the end, when it came to scoring chances (hard shots on net from the slot), it was an even contest, 25 to 25.

So how did the Soviets win so handily?

Better bounces, better goaltending, some weak Canadian defensive play by Rod Seiling and Don Awrey, and a disjointed Team Canada power play are the things that stand out 40 years later.

While no one doubts that Hull, coming off a 50-goal season with the Chicago Blackhawks, would have been a huge addition to Team Canada, I found myself wondering if the bigger loss, when it came to the first game at least, wasn’t Tremblay, who was known as J.C. Superstar in his WHA days.

In retrospect, it’s evident that Seiling and Awrey were poor choices for the game, that Team Canada coach Harry Sinden would have been far better off going with the Chicago pairing of Bill White and Pat Stapleton, who played in the second game in Toronto. Sinden went with only five d-men in the first game. Brad Park, Guy Lapointe and Gary Bergman generally held their own, but Seiling and Awrey had games that they would surely want to forget, as the polite saying goes.

Seiling made mistakes on 10 Soviet scoring chances against, with five of his mistakes coming on goals against. He was at a loss with how to handle the speed of Soviet attackers such as Valery Kharlamov and Boris Mikhailov. Awrey, too, struggled, getting badly burned by Kharlamov and Alexander Malstev on one goal against. Awrey made mistakes on six scoring chances against overall and played little in the third period.

Tremblay, 33 years old and coming off one of his best seasons on the attack for the Montreal Canadiens, would surely have done better. It’s not now easy to imagine his game because it was suited for his era, a different era where stickhandling was a much bigger part of the game. Tremblay was brilliant ragging and passing the puck, controlling the tempo of the game with those skills.

In particular, Tremblay would have helped on the power play, where Canada could trust Park to deliver crisp point passes, but was lacking a d-man quarterback on the other point, having to go with players like Red Berenson, Gary Bergman and Phil Esposito at time, none of them much used to that job, and none of them very good at it.

Seiling wasn’t the only New York Rangers player who struggled. The line of Jean Ratelle, Rod Gilbert and Vic Hadfield, all 31-years-old, and all coming off tremendous NHL campaigns, looked slow and defensively unsound against the Soviets. Younger, quicker forwards like Ron Ellis and Bobby Clarke did much better.

Of course, the top Canadian attacker was Phil Esposito, who contributed to 13 Team Canada scoring chances, more than half of the ones that the team created. Only Frank Mahovlich, Espo’s linemate, came close, chipping in on 12 chances. Next best for Team Canada were Yvan Cournoyer, 8 contributions to chances, Paul Henderson, 6, Park, 6, and Clarke, 5.

For the Soviets, Valery Kharlamov stood out with the quality of his play, putting up four glorious chances and scoring two goals. But the bulk producers were Boris Mikhailov, with 10 contributions to chances, and Vladimir Petrov, 7, Alexander Yakushev, 7, and Maltsev, 7. Next best were Yuri Blinov, 6, Vladimir Shadrin, 5.

On defence, Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak made big saves when Canada’s Ken Dryden did not, but some of that comes down to bounces. Dryden didn’t look particularly bad, while Tretiak’s game was marked by solid positioning, not spectacular saves.

The Soviet blueline lacked a maestro with the puck like Park, but all seven Soviet d-men seemed capable of controlling the puck and making an excellent first pass. Now and then Viktor Kuzkin, 32, looked a bit shaky, but he was facing some of the best attackers on earth, after all.

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